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Patch 4.5 Tier List

Hey everyone! We’re back with tier list 4.5! A couple of notes before we get started: From here on out I’ll be making sure I specifically target every champ that has been altered on the previous patch in my commentary, and if I have leftover room, I’m going to talk about the other major jumps/tier changes, if any, and the surprisingly OP and surprisingly UP champs. I’ll also be posting separate tier lists for each role, but the discussion will be copy pasted from the main tier list (because I’d only be paraphrasing myself) with some additional commentary. So without further ado, here are the tiers for 4.5!

>>>EDIT: There was a slight Z-score error earlier. I corrected it and what follows are the CORRECT tiers.<<<

TIER 2: 1.00 ≤ Z <2.00 This tier is comprised of champions that are statistically overpowered

Master Yi, Kayle, Warwick, Amumu, Ziggs

Master Yi has been seeing lower tier placements for several patches, but as one of the main beneficiaries of feral flare, he has skyrocketed up the lists to the top spot. Yi’s previous problem that relegated him to the bottom tiers was that he was a feast or famine champ; if Master Yi could get some early kills and snowball, he would be nearly unstoppable, but without a nice early start, he would tend to fall off and not have much of a presence late game. This is partially because yi has no team fight utility outside of his damage. However, feral flare’s continuous gold, damage, and life steal rewards made it so that even if yi has a bad start, he can pretty much afk farm, provided his team lanes safely, and arrive at late-game a behemoth. For those of you who don’t want to play him now, but hate playing against him, the wuju-style master is still highly susceptible to CC, so a heavy CC comp can still shut down a flare-fed Yi.

Kayle has been posting ridiculously high win rates for the past several patches now, and breaks into the second spot of 4.5 with just below a 55% win rate. She has been strong for a while, but the changes to her Q and E slightly changed her dominant play style from “Throw wrecking balls all day” to “Kite with E all day.” Surprisingly, even as the 2nd-to-top-performing champion, her pick-ban rate is below average, meaning she is still relatively undervalued by the community. She has great kiting potential vs. melee champs, an ult that nullifies all-ins and burst downs when timed correctly, and tremendous sustain thanks to her heal. Kayle support isn’t that popular anymore, and she maintains most of her presence as an anti-assassin mid, and sometimes a melee-kiter top. Furthermore, her hybrid damage and multiple build paths and styles allows her to fit many team comps.

As was the case last patch, Tanky Junglers (specifically Amumu, Warwick, Rammus, and Jarvan IV, the latter two being found in tier 3) are once again becoming a presence. I would chalk some of this up to the fact that we have been in a very carry-based champion meta this season, making tanks – until recently – less common. Thus, for team comp purposes, tanks have been in higher demand as of late. n other words, they have roughly the same strength as Master Yi right now, who just squeaked his way into tier 2.

The nerf to Ziggs‘s attack range has dropped him to the bottom of tier 2, but the net Z change was only approximately 0.24. In other words, he’s still very strong in this meta.

TIER 3: 0 ≤ Z <1.00This tier is comprised of champions that range from average to above average

Wukong‘s nerfs to his ult damage and armor shred have tuned him down to tier 3, but he still remains a strong pick with excellent team fight potential. He is still powerful enough to blow open team fights and easily swing 5v5s in his team’s favor.

Xin Zhao is another beneficiary of feral flare and has been abusing its strengths in the same way as Master Yi. Xin has often been criticized for falling off late-game, but feral flare has helped correct that to a fearsome degree.

Miss Fortune‘s rework has made her the top ADC in the game right now. Many players were skeptical about the bonus AD being removed from her ult, but the addition of the impure shots proc has made up for it in a BIG way. Furthermore, the enhanced targeting on her q means that it’s now easier to properly cs and poke at the same time with her Q. Although the flat damage was lowered on her q, so was the mana cost and the cooldown, while she gained additional scaling. Really though, her w shines through, as impure shots is now a great, reliable source of damage for MF.

The nerfs to Leona‘s defenses mean that she’s still a great tanky support pick, but now she’s more susceptible to being poked down. The rise in popularity of support Morgana also hurts Leona’s presence and safety as an auto-lock support pick.

Anivia‘s performance increases after her ult change. Now, players can cancel the ult and still do damage, resulting in the ability to use the ult to do more toggle-on-toggle-off damage over time.

Fiddlesticks had a drop in performance this patch, and to be honest, I’m not sure why. My best guess would be either the rise of feral flare junglers diminished his performance, or the rune changes hurt his early game. Either way, I’d love to hear your opinions on this in the comments.

Heimerdinger’s nerf took him out of the second place spot and moved him well into tier 3. His early to mid game turret damage reduction makes him relatively balanced now. With proper turret placement you can still often get a kill off of defending against a gank, but Heimer isn’t pumping out the early game double kills like he used to due to the reduction.

The damage and duration reduction to Lulu‘s E has hurt her mid-lane presence and overall trade potential enough to bring her to a point where she’s almost perfectly balanced (although it might not seem like it qualitatively, lower tier 3 and upper tier 4 are statistically balanced champions).

TIER 4: -1.00 ≤ Z <0This tier is comprised of champions that are range from below average to average

Graves received mana reduction on his E and damage increase on his ult, yet these changes haven’t had much of a performance effect on Graves. He has literally the exact same KDR and APG as last patch, with only a .07% win rate increase.

Renekton falls to tier 4 after his level 1 and 2 ult damage and health was nerfed. Unfortunately for by the croc, the damage and health buff don’t occur until level 3, when laning phase is over. Since Renek’s ult has always been a huge factor to his ability to bully in lane and win prolonged trades, his performance has suffered.

It might not seem like being in tier 4 would be an improvement, but Twisted Fate has shown a strong performance increase, specifically to his win rate, after his pick a card usage window was increased. Most players seem to have not needed the full 8 seconds to choose, so the drop to 6 didn’t hurt TF, but the increase of his usage time from four to six seconds has increased his potential to bide his time for the perfect opportunity to release.

Lee Sin: A champion that was statistically almost perfectly balanced last patch that was nerfed down to the bottom of tier 4. I understand that his playmaking capabilities on the professional scene were intense, but with the safeguard/iron will nerf, lee sin drops into the depths of the tier lists. Now, Lee can no longer have as much health gain or shielding (zero shielding without another champion). This nerf hurts jungle lee sin, but absolutely crushes lane lee sin, since unless the jungler ganks, he won’t have a shield.

TIER 5: -2.00 ≤ Z <-1.00 This tier is comprised of champions that are statistically underpowered

Olaf, Kassadin, Elise, Alistar, Rengar

Rengar had a whole slew of changes this patch, which were supposed to help him be less of a “feast or famine” champ. In actuality, the changes were a net nerf to an already underpowered champion, whose saving graces – his stealth and split push potential – were toned down.

TIER 6: Z ≤ -2.00 This tier is comprised of champions that are outstandingly statistically underpowered.

Gragas, Urgot

Gragas is now Urgot’s tier 6 buddy. With the lowest win rate in the game, 41.14%, Gragas has been performing horrendously after his rework. I DO think that once the player base adapts to his new play style, his stats will increase, but it’s hard to imagine a champion that’s NOT new to increase back to a balanced point from tier 6. The thing is, Gragas is now too weak for his old pure poke and siege tactics, and to weak to go pure close-combat mid. In both cases there are champions that excel more at each role (poke-mages for siege, and assassins for close-combat mid), and Gragas has been relegated to performing an awkward hybrid of the two.

Thanks for tuning in everyone, and make sure to stick around for future tier lists and updates! I’m also thinking of posting some rune stats soon.

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Glad to have this info for reference. I have enjoyed both of the tier lists. I did notice on your next article for runes you liked a googledoc spreadsheet, and I was wondering if you would be willing to do the same with the tier list as I think it would be really nice for us (or at least for me) to be able to grab the information, sort it, etc.